As the appointment for another inspection was made, I silently counted up how many inspections we have had over the last year or 18 months. We have had the Bord Bia quality assurance but we have also had a county council inspection which resulted in me putting in, at some expense, a completely new sewage treatment system and decommissioning the old one that had served us well for 100 years. But last week was a first – for what I was informed was an animal welfare inspection.

As I mentioned before, I have an understanding with a local factory that supplies bulls to the Italian market. The Italians have a particular hang-up about non-GM feed, whether it is soya, maize gluten or maize meal.

Visits

I have had several visits from the Italian customers of my customer who drop in and take samples of the feed. Most of the concentrate is our own wheat and the protein either comes from our own beans or wheat distillers. As there are no GM wheat varieties, once the documentation is available specifying the material that is the end of the matter.

With the bulls around 700kg-750kg liveweight, they can do enormous damage to themselves, to buildings and to whomever is near them if they get agitated. But with a strict policy of no mixing, we have thankfully had remarkably little trouble.

At first I used be alarmed to see them lying flat out on the slats – with bullocks you would think the worst but with bulls, it is a sure sign of contentment with life after a full feed.

Our Italian visitor wanted to assess how nervous the bulls were as she went up to individual animals as she walked along the central passage.

In general, they ignored her or lazily lifted their nose up from their feed with some degree of curiosity but that was the full extent of their reaction. So, after again taking a sample of feed for analysis, they departed but proclaimed themselves to be happy with everything so another inspection over.

Meanwhile, on the tillage side everything is at a standstill. We still have some herbicide to get out on the wheat but there is nothing we can do in the current conditions while the volunteer beans are making rapid progress in the seed crops. The oilseed rape is as good as I have seen it for several years but that seems to be the same all over the country. It’s a pity we don’t have a serious rape crushing facility in the country.

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